Hardware wins (usually) but software often fails

January 3, 2011

Multi-button controllers.

Games with on-board save storage.

Analog control features.

These are a few of the things that have come in the past—things that started off as concepts, but became something big and flashy in the world of gaming. These things eventually became expected, became routine, became…well, so what? This is the unfortunate nature of any innovation in video-gaming technology: anything that is new and shiny is destined to become routine.

…Or simply fail.

A few concepts that were supposed to revolutionize gaming as the world knew it fell flat. One of the most memorable examples is Nintendo’s first foray into 3-D—the short-lived, much maligned Virtual Boy. The system’s physical design was the first strike—something that looks like the puff-of-air machine the optometrist makes you look into doesn’t exactly say ‘fun.’ Second strike—graphics weren’t that great—going from monochrome green-and-white to monochrome red-and-black has never been considered a step forward. Add the handful of games at launch, and you have a glorified paperweight waiting to happen.

But it got better. One needs to look no further than at the still-in-demand Wii to see this.

But what of game fails? Kathryn Bjørnstad of Belleville and chapter leader of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, has this to say about a trend that doesn’t seem to be going away:

I think that making video games for practically every movie that comes out has really damaged the credibility and quality of games. It’s led to a lot of cheaply produced games that are meant to be marketable. No one seems to like those games. They buy it and play it and go, “Oh, wait. This is crap.” And it sits on their shelves collecting dust until they resell it on Amazon, eBay, or at a local used game store for some other schmuck to stumble across. Started with that awful ET game and they never learned their lesson. I think it would be more worthwhile for everyone involved to only produce games that time and effort have gone into. I don’t think that will change though.